I came up with another reason to bolster my belief that this whole PCT hike had been an outlandishly stupid idea.
We act as if we don’t know that awful things happen to all sorts of people every second of every day and the only thing that’s changed about the world or the existence or nonexistence of God or the color of the sky is that the awful thing is happening to us.
Love many, trust few, and always paddle your own canoe.
You’re here. So be here, dear one. You’re okay with us for now.
I suggest you forget about forgiveness for now and strive for acceptance instead.
Your behavior and words will deeply impact your child’s life – both how he or she feels about his or her father and also how he or she feels about him or herself.
THE RECKONING Dear Sugar, I am the lucky mama of one darling baby and oh, how I treasure every moment! Unfortunately – or fortunately, depending on how you look at it – the baby’s daddy does not follow suit on treasuring every moment.
You must do everything you can to get what you want and need, to find “that type of love.” It’s there for you. I know it’s arrogant of me to say so, because what the hell do I know about looking like a monster or a beast? Not a thing. But I do know that we are here, all of us – beasts and monsters and beauties and wallflowers alike – to do the best we can. And every last one of us can do better than give up.
I learned then what I have learned in many other ways over the course of my life: that when we’re in the presence of someone else’s pain, the burden of not-doing is so much greater than the burden of doing. Doing lifts the burden. Even if it’s a small thing. Like writing a letter.
That we must help ourselves. That after destiny has delivered what it delivers, we are responsible for our lives.
You are not a terrible person for wanting to break up with someone you love. You don’t need a reason to leave. Wanting to leave is enough.
I’ve long believed literature’s greatest superpower is how it makes us feel less alone.
Don’t let a man who doesn’t love you be one of them.
Naked and smiling” is one male friend’s only requirement for a lover. Perhaps it’s because men are people with bodies full of fears and insecurities and shortcomings of their own. Find one of them. One who makes you think and laugh and come. Invite him into the tiny revolution in your beautiful new world.
You Don’t Have to Be Broken for Me.
People want to help I woman alone. Or try to get in her pants.
I felt better than I’d ever felt in all of my life, now that the trail had taught me how horrible I could feel.
By then my marriage had become like the trail in that moment when I realized there was a bull in both directions. I simply made a leap of faith and pushed on in the direction where I’ve never been.
I made a crumpled gesture with my hands, out of words, a bit surprised that I’d let so many tumble out.
The air came alive with the sound of the wind whipping the trees at times and at other times it was profoundly hushed by the endless silencing snow. Everything but me seemed utterly certain of itself. The sky didn’t wonder where it was.